Most of Brazil's iconic National Museum collection was destroyed Sunday night by a massive fire. The oldest scientific institution dates from the 19th Century. It was located in Rio de Janeiro and housed millions of historical treasures. Lucrecia Franco, in Rio, reports.

Angry demonstrators gathered Monday at the gates of Brazil's National Museum, blaming the government for a massive fire that destroyed the entire collection. The beautiful, but decayed 200-year-old building didn't collapse, but lost its roof and more than twenty million historical items that were engulfed by the flames. Late on Sunday, after it had closed its doors to the public, a fire broke out. No injuries were reported but the scene was sad and shocking. It was one of the largest natural history museums in the Americas.

PROFESSOR JOAO CARLOS NARA RIO DE JANEIRO UNIVERSITY "I would say it's a loss for Brazil, because it's our history that was stored here, our scientific history, or academic history."

The collection included dinosaur fossils and historical artefacts from Brazil, Egypt and Greece. The museum also had one of the oldest the oldest human skeletons found in Latin America, known as Luiza.

LUCRECIA FRANCO RIO DE JANEIRO "Though the cause of the fire is still unknown, museum officials said the financial situation was so dire they had to struggle to operate with the bare minimum."

LUIZ FERNANDO DIAS DUARTE DEPUTY DIRECTOR, NATIONAL MUSEUM "It is a problem of funding from the federal government for a very long time, and for many, many years. This did not enable us to make the necessary structure interventions in the palace."

The museum dates back to 1818 and once served as the home of the Portuguese royal family, but it fell on hard times. President Michel Temer, who ordered cuts to science and education, tweeted that two hundred years of work, research and knowledge have been lost. But these Brazilians maintain the tragedy could have been prevented if the government had released funds to support what it was considered one of Latin America's cultural jewels. Lucrecia Franco, CGTN, Rio de Janeiro.